A girl born who stunned doctors by battling her way off life-support will fly to America for treatment.

Amber Regan had to be resuscitated and given two blood transfusions as soon as she was born, doctors racing to get her heart beating as quickly as possible.

With life-support machines keeping her alive, doctors feared Amber would not be able to cope on her own and gave her a life-span of ten months.

Her family made the wrenching decision of turning the machine off.

Against the odds, she survived.

Now the Ongar resident is six years-old and has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, hearing and vision loss as a result of oxygen starvation.

She is also non-mobile and non-verbal.

Benna Regan, Amber's mum, said: "She moves, breaths, feeds and drinks on her own, she is our fighting little angel and has continued to be so in her short space of life.

"She can't play or feed herself, but is a happy, content little girl."

In order to make sure Amber is as healthy and happy as possible, her family make very regular hospital visits.

In 2015 she had 198 appointments with NHS services, which come on top of therapy sessions that cost £270 a week and include oxygen therapy and horse riding lessons.

To fund her treatment and to fly Amber to the USA for a second time for specialist treatment, the Regan family are constantly fundraising.

Now they have received a boost from Persimmon Homes, which donated £1,000 to the Amber fund.

Mrs Regan said: “Thanks to Persimmon Homes we have now reached our fundraising target.

"We took Amber to receive this treatment last year and she gained so much – it truly helped improve her quality of life.

“She has defied all the odds and is a real fighter. We are all very proud of her.

“We’re delighted that we can take Amber to America for further therapy and we are very grateful to Persimmon Homes Essex for supporting her journey.”

To apply for Community Champions funding visit www.persimmonhomes.com/charity